Effective Marketing Strategies for IT Companies - Nane Matevossyan|SaaS Founders Podcast

Hi everyone, my name is Dimarudenko. I'm the founder of SaaS Founders Communities, helping founders of software development companies to find newbie clients via LinkedIn. Today I'm honored to welcome Nanema Tevasan. She is CEO of Sly Consulting. She's a marketing and marketing strategy expert, MBA and she's providing consulting training and mentoring for over 18 years, specializing in marketing management and digital marketing. Hello Nane, nice to see you.

Hi, thank you for the invitation. Nice to see you. Yeah.

Adami. So as our members, they are very good in software development. They are very good in product development. But as far as I see, they've got a lack of knowledge and experience in marketing channels and marketing techniques and different things that will help them to get new big clients. From your perspective, from your experience, what are the most effective marketing channels and maybe approaches? If we speak about selling, of outsourcing.

Of software development, as we speak about marketing, some non specialists consider marketing as a promotion opportunity for the business. But marketing isn't only promotion, it's in the very beginning is product development and relevant product development for the customers. So the customers are the are in the center. That's why Pilot tests and MVPs that are very familiar for SaaS companies are the first stage when the marketing specialist should be involved and only after that when we see the analytics results, when we can see data and understand what functionality is more relevant for the users, which button they click, let's say, and what they price more, then we go to the market. And when going to the market, there are very different channels for the promotion. Now let's consider digital ones as they're more relevant for the software companies and there are specialized platforms for software. But there are still many opportunities in social media in let's consider search engine for that and Google as a platform for promotion. YouTube and YouTube tutorials for the software is when people buy or take the free version of the software, they always have a problem how to use it, how to use it and take everything from it. Let's say that's why there are many tutorials that can help. And influencers in software market are very important component. Yeah, so put some advertising campaign you can try with different visuals, with different copyright and see how the results vary. That's it, I think.

Yeah. Okay. If we speak about influencers, I think it's a very nice opportunity because before it was like press, TV channels etc and now influencers, they create a lot of attention, they create certain tribes of potential clients. But you know, it's very hard to Reach the influencer because they consider them as superstars. They've got a lot of stuff around and it's very hard to knock, let's say and open the doors. What can you suggest if we consider this channel in details, how to approach the, let's say the influencers.

Yeah, it's a problem actually sometimes big problem. But when you make something really interesting and important in the area, influencers can pass it by and they should speak about it to be contemporary, to be actual, to take the vibe. So you should make some great job before you approach to influencers and maybe even you don't approach the influencers directly but just work to be in attention and they have to speak about you to be really to have engagement, to have users attention. So it's a big deal and it is very hard job but it is worth.

Okay, okay, good. So it might be something like a common project, for example, you can deliver for example a small part of your functionality free for the users and you can make it like a social act or show some, let's say social things that might be relevant to the audience etc. And with this, for example, even if it is not connected, it might be something like to do a common, let's say project like for funding of something that every user that will join from this channel, let's say we'll get a benefit and Maybe let's say 50% of the profit will come to the charity organization of this person. For example, what do you think about that? Is will it work or it should be something different?

Early, early birds always take this and they like promo codes, they like to be user and give feedback of it to make changes, why not to ask for changes and help to adapt the product for themselves. So yes, when you start developing a product it is very important to have a group of relevant users that can test your product, give relevant feedback, really tell their opinion about it and maybe even shoot a video about that. And I was about to speak about on micro influencers and also about people who aren't considered as influencers but they still have large group of followers and they can do business in very different areas. They shouldn't be some actors or showmakers and they can say their true opinion about the product just after testing something. So it is very important to touch the customer part and make something really important for customers. Sometimes developers make a product then think about the customers. But the first really is what problem you solve with your product. Why customers should consider your product but not the product of the competition. What is your wow button on interface.

Yeah, okay, okay, I get it. Yeah. Okay.

Business by them.

Yeah. Do you hear me? Okay. Now? Yeah, now it's fine.

Yes.

Okay. We understand that each product owner has got very limited resources and there is huge ocean of marketing opportunities. From your perspective, what are, let's say the first, let's say essential steps the owner, the product owner should do to get more clients, to get more. More attention. What do you suggest? Like to plan 1, 2, 3, what's to start, when to continue and what should be done after.

Envy product market needs. Of course you need good marketing specialist for that. Then data analysis and adjustments come. After that you can promote your product in search engine. Firstly you should optimize it. Then you use promotion other promotion channels as I said, YouTube reviews and maybe TikTok. It depends on the audience you should work with. If it is really product for businesses, LinkedIn is the best channel to try. Then there are very specific specialized platforms for softwares where you can put your product and get what's on it, comments and shares and everything. Social media will come if your product will go to customer market to users. Not business users, but common users. Let's say.

Okay, okay.

Google my business is good for search engine optimization yellow pages. Nobody considers in software market yellow pages but they still help a lot automation and mailing. It's a bit old school but it still is very relevant and one of the free or very cheap channels. Let's say the word of mouth is the best one.

So okay, so if I understood correctly, we're speaking about. First let's consider our. Let's say first circle or second circle. Regarding let's say, I'm trying to summarize, right? So first consider our. Let's say friends, family and other people around to invite them to join to get feedback if they are relevant to the market. If it is business, use LinkedIn if it is, let's say if you're working with customers use social media. Also mailing is good one and TikTok if I'm not mistaking another let's say.

Yeah, if you need younger audience TikTok and TikTok videos will make a vibe.

Okay, good. Okay, yeah, sure.

Sorry. Don't forget about the pilot tests as you get objective opinion of customers and you collect really relevant data. Just launching for a small group of people of potential users and you get to collect very important data by it.

How to motivate user to give feedback because they are lazy. They want the product, they want to use it but they say oh, I don't want to reply, I have to, let's say think about it, how to route it down, how to shoot a video regarding that, how do you consider, let's say to motivate users to shoot, let's say to give answers regarding the, the functionality of the product. Yeah.

Thank you very much.

I don't hear you. Unfortunately we've got some.

And they go through tools if the product is online, see how they jump from page to page and how many, how much time they spend on each. And if you are familiar with Yandex metrics it makes can be used through pages and how they came to that button to push. It's the very important data that you collect without asking them. Online chat and support button. Because if they have a trouble in your platform, if there is a bug, they will ask, they will show you the problem and you can solve it very fast. You can go to the reviews. If it is an application, you can go to the market and see what they write about your product and give a relevant feedback to them, say thank you and go to improve your product. Also you can see the feedbacks on Google, on relevant platforms, specialized ones and in Facebook. Why not? I also see the reviews.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, awesome, awesome. Thank you. Yeah, it's really good idea.

Yeah, sorry. I remember one more tool that you can use. It's social mention. So you can go to social mention and try how people speak about your product or are they speaking about your.

Product or no, yeah, absolutely, absolutely. That's true. Okay, okay, okay, I get it, I get it. So, okay, so we started let's say with the founder and let's say one or two assistants for example, right. And they help the founder mostly to understand, let's say to get the feedback they understand, let's say the weak points. They understand, let's say the, the strong points. And then try to evaluate and keep on, keep on working. What are the best tools for scaling if you consider marketing. So for example, we've got first customers and we see that, yeah, people would love to use it, but it can be huge customer acquisition cost. What are the methods, let's say the bad methods to attract customers without paying all money in the world. What do you think about that?

I want to speak about very important thing that people always forget internal marketing and internal branding. When you scale, you have a huge team and you have many ambassadors of your brand working just inside your team. So if you make great. I'm sorry. And there is set up communication inside your company and people understand everything about your brand. They care about Your brand. You have a very strong army of people that can organically share your products and involve new people. And very good idea that we use in our company, it's idea box. So people can put their ideas to the box, even the ones that aren't involved in the marketing. Because everybody can have an idea and find something wrong or an opportunity to market. And the best idea of the month is getting paid, which is very fair. And people are motivated. The company has pool of ideas that can be realized. It is really very good tool that can bring competitive advantage to the company. If we go to large market, you, you should use all, all, everything you can. But firstly consider is everything okay with your product? Because if it is great one search box inside the product and maybe somebody made more the product with high usability, let's say. So just ask your clients, ask your clients why they retain what is the problem and why what will make them stay, let's say.

Okay.

Another marketing tool that can bring a large market is the referrals. Everybody uses referrals now. So you can give some discounts or extra options for your clients to bring more clients to you. And it is organic. Another organic tool that can help and save your money.

Okay. Do you consider referrals are working?

Maybe you need some structuring.

Yeah, yeah, that's fine. That's fine. If we speak about referrals, it seems to be good. But I, I found that sometimes if we speak about B2B people are not very actively promoting. Right. They can still say, yes, I've got clients, I can let's say give you a lot of clients. But we need to give a huge, let's say discount for them and no way they are moving. Do you have any advices, for example, how to activate these partners or referrals network?

It should be something really valuable money. It can be extra functionality or maybe specialized support to that partner. Now I have a partner company that gives me just VIP support. I have a manager, individual manager in the company and I'm highly motivated to transfer the company to my partners and clients. Actually very good referrals can bring agencies. If you work with marketing agencies that have many clients in very different areas, you can bring clients from them and you can provide them some solutions, maybe free of.

Yeah, so you mentioned marketing agencies and other providers for. To the same, let's say to the same type of clients. Yeah, sounds good. And for example, let's consider this situation. You're the founder, I'm the founder. What will motivate you, let's say to promote my services or me to promote your services? You told that it should be something like dedicated manager who will help and assist. Right? You told that about financials. So it should be something valuable, right? For. For the partner to get. Right. And what is the measure of value? How to measure it? Because sometimes, well, it's in economics. It should be also efficient for the business, right? So how. What should we start from? For example, what portion. Let's say what. What revenue share should we give to these partners?

It can be just, you know, it's. It's hard to calculate. You should firstly know how much every client brings you. How much is client lifetime value in your company and then decide is is the partner valuable enough to you to give some revenue share? It can be something lighter than revenue share. It can be access for something small amount of money. But I really don't want to add money in this process. It can be pr, it can be solutions, partnership solutions, it can be maybe branded solution. If I'm a marketing company and there is a software that can help my clients in marketing, I can cooperate with a developer company if there is my logotype in the user portal that my clients use. And it is really much more valuable than money I. I can earn from this. So it should be.

Yeah, we should create platforms. I think not the products, but the platforms to engage partners. Yeah, it's valuable idea.

And really think about the partnership relations, not just technically give something, offer something. You should adopt your offer for the company you speak about, you speak with. So partnership is very important thing. And network is very important thing for the business.

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. What do you think about events? Because events from one side, you can meet people personally, but it takes a lot of efforts to prepare and take some budgets to do. What do you think about events? Are they effective? If we speak about, let's say B2B sales, B2B let's say B2B projects and services to sale.

It is not a great tool. And let's speak about the leadership in the market. If you consider a company as really leader, you should do something like that. You should make conferences, you should make webinars. You should do everything to be opinion leader in the market and drive some novelties in it. If no and if you don't have enough money for that, it isn't the final point, final destination you should reach. It's just a tool. And you can use other conferences and other events just to speak about yourself. You can grow up experts inside your company to be speakers in other conferences. You can Go as a business owner to other conferences about and online conferences. Doesn't take so much it is worth to try. Can you hear me? And how should be combined all of this in a single strategy. Hard work that should be planned from the very beginning.

Okay, okay, okay, get it. And what is the pricing? Let's say approximate pricing. I understand that it's where it might vary a lot but you know for the founders it might be really good to understand can they afford your services because you know you can go for freelancers they might be cheaper for example but they are not so reliable because they can stop the work and there is no tools how you can influence them to work. So can you give some estimation? Let's say approximate estimation. How much will it cost? Just rough, let's say in rough rough ranges. Is it affordable?

It's mid market prices and it's okay to share with you. Now we have outsourced packages, full marketing outsource packages. It's a one year contract and it starts from three and a half thousand dollars per month to 5,000 approximately digital marketing, design strategy services and production if needed. So everything that should be combined in every stage of the marketing support for the company and there are several services.

Oh, I don't hear you. Unfortunately I don't hear you.

And you make stronger relations with your partners and you involve companies they see the results of the cooperation not only the product but value that you can provide. That's what I was speaking about in general and there is a very good example and idea to realize. Yes, good.

Okay. How can your company help. How can your company help the founders of software development companies and let's say and product companies to grow their retention to be known on the market and to get more sales.

Actually we provide the marketing outsource services for small and medium companies. We start with them in the startup stage and we go together in the market. So even during the product tests, even getting customer feedback much analytics from Google from everything and can form an idea how to update the product. What is more relevant, what people will pay for. Also we do competitive overview and can say why people paid to the competitor and client company. Yeah, I'm not sure the connect is good. Can you hear me?

Yeah, yeah, I do, I do, I do. Yeah there are some glitches. Okay, I. I get the idea. And how much time will it take and what. Okay, yeah.

When operation because we start with pilot test, then go to the market. We have branding strategy, product, how will and how it should be promoted organically and paid and how should be combined, all of this in a single strategy to hard work that should be planned from the very beginning.

Do you hear me? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I do. Now I hear you. Yeah. Okay, so I get the idea. So it's like mid market and it's like from 2 to 5,000 per month, which is, I would say, yeah, it's mid market. And people can benefit from having, let's say, a team that can combine their knowledge all together. So you don't need to have, let's say to have your own team because having, let's say team will take a lot of time for recruiting and you don't have a lot of jobs. If you speak about founder, say for the full time, SMM manager, for a full time planner, for the full time designer. So you can share this course with other companies in the packages, like Nanette. All right, Nanette, do you hear me? Yeah. So yeah, outsourcing is good one as we are, let's say selling outsourcing. Some companies sell outsourcing services for software development. The same can be done with the marketing. With the marketing and other services. For example, nowadays only very big companies, they hold accountants fully on board, but all small and medium business, they use outsourcing services. For example, even yourself you can use now let's say accountants, financial managers, et cetera. And thus you can, let's say, save a lot of money on sharing.

They can catch a cold, they can have a wedding party and they can have a bad mood to work today and everything in the world. And you should deal with all of these, besides the strategy and company development you should think about and the partners and the conferences and everything. And when you hire outsourced company, you have a contract, you have exact bullet points, what they should do, what results they will bring. And you don't care what specialists are there, who works today, who not, and how they manage the tasks. You get just what you paid and everything. That's all.

Okay. Yeah, good. That's true. Okay, so thank you. I think, I think it's clear. So you gave a good overview of different tools and channels and good approaches that are accessible for the founders and good interesting ideas regarding how to work in social media, how to do, let's say the stuff, how to find partners, how to motivate them. That's awesome. I think we'll put your contacts in the description of this video. So everybody who would like to know more and have, let's say, full marketing outsourcing, they can ask Nane for that advice and then you can discuss with Dane, how it works and what the benefits people can get out of the outsourcing. Right?

Yeah, sure. Feel free to contact and I am in Touch on LinkedIn. I'm always online, let's say. And I will be happy to support.

Sure, absolutely. Thank you, Nane, for this information. I think it will help to sharpen the mind for many people and people will see, okay, they missed something. And now after this interview, they will get some pieces of the puzzle all together and will help them to go to the next level.

Thank you very much for the interesting interview, for the questions, and I should think a lot about what you say. It is very important. And I was watching to everything from another angle. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Thank you.